The big news today was the Institute for Supply Management’s December 2010 Manufacturing Report. The report shows PMI rising to 57, up .4 percent from November’s 56.6. This didn’t quite beat analysts’ expectations of a PMI of 57.3, but it does show economic growth thanks to increases in new orders, production, employment deliveries and inventories. In the last 12 months, however, PMI has been higher. Its high for the year was 60.4, which it reached in January of 2010.
One interesting point brought up in the report is that the manufacturing sector grew again—for the 17th consecutive month. But like some bloggers today noted, employment isn’t growing at the same rate as manufacturing and had actually fallen during 5 of the 17 months that manufacturing was up. This trend may reverse, since consumer confidence seems to be improving and much of the earlier manufacturing growth could have been the result of the initial wave of post-recession restocking rather than actual increased orders.
A few stocks in the manufacturing sector had some impressive gains, including Modine Manufacturing Co (NYSE: MOD), American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc (NYSE: AXL) and Stoneridge Inc (NYSE: SRI). Below is a look at the growth of these three stocks over the past 17 months.
*All prices and charts courtesy of Yahoo Finance.
